New Music Seminar 2009 in Retrospect

DJ, Hiro.

Yesterday the New Music Seminar wrapped up. It’s kind of crazy, really because it came and went, all without any kind of notice. If you’re like me tethered to a desk, working off an intravenous flow of caffeine to help comb through Google Reader, then you can understand how the rest of the world can pass you by. Ultimately, taking people away from their workstations and putting them into a room to talk about the music industry’s changing trends is probably the only way to fully understand why the internet has changed the way they consume music. I’m sure somewhere on one of the panels, someone loosely iterated a statement close to, “as we speak, another record is being broken.” Yup, I’m pretty much part of that cross section of the industry doing exactly what the seminar is about—molding the red clay of the music industry’s digital model.
The photo above is actually a screen grab from last year’s showcase at Hiro Ballroom, where I deejayed for Mickey Factz, a guy whose ability to create an online identity for rap crosses more genre lines than the interwebs weave daily. We performed about 3-4 songs, some of which were exclusives that had been premiered while on the road, then subsequently became part of his first iTunes release, Alpha. One year later, he reached his tipping point with a record deal on Battery/Jive Records, ready to disperse music that gleans the other profitable arenas that break new music—TV, video games and of course, the internet.